Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 11. (Read 62776 times)

Most chances we will have no retirement for Lionel Messi until world cup 2026 because he is currently doing good job in MLS with his performance with his national team is also good so most chances we will be watch his play until world cup then we can expect any announcement about his future.

His performance at club level is impressive because he is having 21 matches 21 goals and 11 assists which mean still playing as quality player while Ronaldo is much senior in age so we are surely going to have them for few more years than we can expect we will have new generation players to give their best after these two legendary.

Argentinian team is having few best alternatives which are also given their best, and they can use them while they are having matches against weak sides which will give them better view about the future of these players because time is running out quickly and things needed some positive changes in national team of Argentina which is going to defend their title in USA 2026.

Well this will depend on their decision, let's assume Messi will retire before the World Cup so he will not be in the squad as a player. The Federation will certainly pay respect by offering Messi to be one of the staff who will accompany Argentina in the World Cup later.
Now the question is whether Messi will be interested in that or he prefers to rest completely. I think we all will agree that the Federation will give a privilege to a player who has made the country proud. And once again this will be Messi's decision entirely.
sometimes some people will reject such a privilege offer and prefer another way. Like ZIdane for example, how many big teams want him but he still sticks to his position. Maybe this is a different case, but we can still use it as a simple example.

Yes, if he does not retire, there is a chance that Messi will play again in the 2026 world cup, but in my opinion if he enters the team, he will not play more time as before, because his stamina and abilities have decreased quite a lot, as is the case with Ronaldo, and if that doesn't happen then the second chance to be part of the coaching staff of their national team to equip his younger siblings, and the last scenario is that they will just watch the match and enjoy the match in the stands, with the reason that they no longer want to be involved and in contact with the soccer industry, it could happen for his old age.

Why should someone be working on "getting retired and ending their career"? Messi is at 20 goals in the MLS with an average of 74 minutes per goal. He is by far the best scorer in that league by this metric. He has played about half as many games as the leading goal scorer and only scored 3 goals less. Does that sound like he should be working on ending his career?

Ronaldo has scored in 3 out of his last 4 games in the national team while nobody else has done the same. I understand the discussion about their age, but for as long as they deliver these numbers, are you right with your idea or are they right?

Do you prefer a 25 years old player who scores every once in a while or do you prefer a grandpa who scores almost every game? I can tell you I prefer the grandpa because after all in professional sports nothing else counts for a striker. But I am sure as soon as Ronaldo stops scoring for several games in a row, pressure will be rising for him.

Years ago, we heard people saying the World Cup was not fun without superstar palyers like Pele and Maradona and then after a few years, people were waiting for the World Cup to watch players like Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. I think now Messi and Ronaldo should start working on getting retired and ending their careers because they are old and they are not in the good form anymore.
Maybe if they end their career while they are in good form that's better for them because this is how they can get retired while they remain the memory of people.
 

The World Cup without Ronaldo and Messi feels incomplete, both players will clearly be the main attraction if they are involved in the four-yearly event. However, many things must be considered here, considering their age is no longer young. Instead of contributing, both players must ensure that they do not become a burden to the team, and put the manager in a dilemma. Simply put, because of age factors there is not much that can be expected from both of them, although everyone realizes that Ronaldo and Messi can still contribute with different roles for their respective national teams.

I have an assumption. Even if Messi retires I think he will still be involved with the Argentina national team either as a coaching staff or as a mentor for young Argentine players. But I think if he doesn't get injured it looks like the 2026 World Cup will be his last World Cup. In fact it will be the last World Cup for both of our GOATs. Argentina is still the best football team in the world based on the FIFA rankings and they still have a great chance to at least reach the semifinals. It would be very memorable if Messi could get his second World Cup even though it is almost impossible.

Messi seems to still be part of the tango team at the 2026 world cup, in my opinion Messi's opportunity to play in the world cup is still wide open as Ronaldo is now, so far Messi and Ronaldo are still show their greatness as footballers so it will be difficult for the coach to get rid of them from squad, especially since they have had a very vital role in the national team squad, In my opinion, Messi and Ronaldo still have a lot to offer for their national team, their experience and leadership on the field are very valuable, especially in big tournaments like the world cup later, so indeed their presence can also provide additional motivation for young players to learn and develop later, it is inevitable if now argentina and prortugal have players who can replace the role of Messi and Ronaldo, but it doesn't hurt for the coach to keep Ronaldo and Messi in their squad because maybe a balanced approach can be the best solution, where Messi and ronaldo still play a role, but also coach must to give space for young players to perform and develop, the 2026 world cup I think will be the last world cup for the two best players in that the world.

Neymar has just return to play with Al Hilal recently after got long term injury and he can bringing Al Hilal to win from Al Ain at Asia champion league but on that match Neymar only playing for 13 minutes and regarding his chance to joining again with Brazil National team recently i found a news that Neymar will be absense when Brazil facing Venezuela and Uruguay

The main reason why Dorival Junior didn't calling him for those matches because Dorival Junior don't want to pushing Neymar to playing more because he doesn't want Neymar got the injury again besides that Dorival Junior want to ensure that if Neymar playing again with Brazil then he has a good fitness and probably Neymar will defend Brazil on March 2025

Messi is taking part in the CONMEBOL qualifiers, and he also took part in COPA America. So I guess he has plans to represent Argentina at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But the question is whether that is required or not. Argentina can easily replace Messi with some of the younger players. The case with Cristiano Ronaldo is a lot different. Portugal still doesn't have someone who can replace him in the squad. For sure they have promising youngsters such as Rafael Leão and João Félix. But the problem is that they are not at a level where they can replace Ronaldo.

Even though Messi is old, he is still the most important player of the whole Argentina team, even every player of Argentina team respects him. In fact, Messi is the most experienced player in the Argentina team. At the 2014 World Cup, Argentina were unexpectedly defeated by Germany in the final match and missing out on the title. However, Argentina continued their good performance which resulted in them qualifying for the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup as well.

Then in the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, Argentina won their coveted FIFA World Cup, basically Lionel Messi's performance in that World Cup was unparalleled. Now a question on the minds of all football fans is whether Messi will play in 2026 FIFA World Cup. I think If he does not retire from football, he may be seen with the Argentina team in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Regarding Graham Arnold, he actually has lot of experience with Australia but indeed for the current edition they performed less than satisfactory but Graham Arnold departure is also quite unfortunate because he is not bad coach, now Australia and Saudi Arabia will continue the third round with each of their new coaches, I quite curious about how they will finish in this third round.
Of all this, only Saudi Arabia is quite worrying, Herve Renard knows very well what he has to do for Saudi Arabia and I sure that Herve Renard return can help Saudi Arabia to still have chance to participate in the 2026 World Cup and for Japan itself they are the strongest and it will be difficult for anyone in Asia to beat them.

We understand how difficult it is to win the World Cup when we watch Brazil in every World Cup tournament. 

In every tournament of the world cup Brazil team wants to ignite the world cup tournament with the best team from all the other teams and in every tournament they have a dream to fulfill the mission hexa but till now they could not win the world cup for the sixth time. Germany won the 2014 World Cup, France won the 2018 World Cup and Argentina won the 2022 World Cup. Although Argentina is a good team in the 2026 World Cup tournament, there is no guarantee that they can win the World Cup title, so Messi must think about these things and decide whether he will stay in the next World Cup team or announce his retirement before the World Cup.

I'm not sure but I feel Mancini was better for Sadi Arabian and now they will feel regret for getting Mancini fired because the performance of Mancini was good enough and they were about to get themself into the 2026 World Cup which is a great achievement for them.
Also, Mancini had a good reputation in this country and now Renard is going to return. Maybe because Renard they got their coach fired because Renard was working there before until he left Saudi Arabia because getting another offer.

It's a fact that things with Brazil are different now, the player that has caused me the most curiosity is the improvement of Rapinha, he has scored goals with the national team and also with Barcelona, ??wow this player has been key, I think that Brazil has recovered its level, the bad thing is that it is recovering it and it has to play against Venezuela and with the players being at full speed against Venezuela it is probable that they will beat them easily, and that is what I do not want lol, however we have to wait, there I saw that Ney joined Al Hilal, and of all the Brazilians the one I have the most respect for and I would not want him to face is Ney, because Ney represents the joga bonito in Brazil, it is a problem that he shines a lot.

Neymar will take a few months to perhaps return to being what he was, I still think he should expose himself less in the plays and try to retreat his positioning on the field and try to be a kind of classic number 10, the one who sets up the plays for the attackers to finish or else try to be a finishing center forward... if he continues playing as he is used to, he will get injured again... a serious injury like his if it happens again at his age will be the end of career.

The Brazil team will play the World Cup qualifiers again in November.  Prior to that, Gabriel, who was strong against the attack defense in the Brazil team, was injured in the last match.
 Earlier, another center break, Bremer, was ruled out for the season due to injury.
 Brazil's right ringer Rodrigo has been injured in the Champions League stage, Alison Brecker, the regular goalkeeper of the team, has been injured in the Brazil team.
 Vinicius was out of the field due to injury in the last World Cup qualifying match.  This is one of the best stars of the Brazil team after getting injured after playing a match for Real Madrid.
 However, Vinicius jr recovered before this World Cup qualifying round.
 Vinicius jr recovered but another Brazilian ringer Rodrigo was injured during the Champions League.  It is not yet known exactly how long he will be out of the field.
 Gabriel suffered the injury while playing for Arsenal against Liverpool.  Meanwhile, Brazil's main goalkeeper Alison Brecker, who is injured, has been injured for a long time. This Liverpool star last played for Liverpool on October 5 and left the field after playing 79 minutes. Due to a hamstring injury, there is no guarantee when Alison will return to the field.
 Meanwhile, Bremer of Juventus ended this season due to injury
 Brazilians are worried.
 All in all, the Brazilian team is plagued with injuries.  The return of Neymar Jr. among them is good news for the Brazilians, but Neymar Jr. is back in the team after a year.  Old matches that have not been played yet, there are a number of injuries again.
 I am hopeful that the Brazil team will recover from injuries and come back in formidable form in this year's tournament.  Will win the hearts of fans with their game.

After certain age, there isn't any lower division that would matter because they would not be able to play. Remember, most of their life these players played with other great players as well, sure they were always the best player but they didn't had terrible players around them, they had some great players around them most of their life. Sure right now maybe they do not have the greatest players, but they still have "some" decent players with them as well, so they are benefiting that too.

But if they go to for example like 4th division of Spanish league, just to score goals, the hard tackle defense of other teams would hurt them a lot and would injure them, age would stop them, and their terrible teammates would not be able to pass them well enough. So after a certain age, there is no way they can keep scoring, not like they can be 50 and go to lower league and score. Unless they just need like couple goals, then they can do that for a few games, score a few goals and be done.

Mancini is not a bad coach. but there is dissatisfaction with the results that Saudi Arabia currently gets in the qualifiers. of course, they want a ticket to the World Cup finals with the hope that Hervé Renard can provide positive results from several remaining Saudi matches in this 3rd round.
Japan I think will secure the first ticket to qualify, while Australia and Saudi Arabia currently have the same points. the next meeting between Saudi Arabia and Australia will be a tough step for Hervé Renard.

59 years old Roberto Mancini not bad coach, but he fails to adopt conditions here in Saudi Arab which bring Saudi Arab down which was not acceptable for the Saudi soccer authorities so with mutual understanding we have this contract ended, and now they are back in business with Hervé Renard who is having good experience with this team and his performance was also much better than Roberto Mancini.



Currently, Saudi Arab in third stage of FIFA World Cup qualifiers they are having not good results from their 4 games their next game is against Australia which is also not easy, so things were going not favourable for their qualification which allow bringing changes at this level now we will have Hervé Renard for another qualification into world cup because Saudi Arab not want to lose their spot with their vision and things are surely allowing them to stay in good.